I was told about a senior career professional who usually held a New Year’s activation talk with his company staff.
The report said, annually, he never failed to remind the workforce that everyone would leave the workplace some day, and he would often go ahead to tell the team members the five ways by which every employee would eventually leave the organisation.
He became so consistent with these talks, backed with actions, that staff members grew more exit-ready minded than commitment or focus-ready minded.
Mind you, his intention wasn’t to make his team members leave the company, it was his way of making them see that by nature, all humans and their journeys are transient, thus spurring them to give their best, when they could!
So much for the power of words, your intentions notwithstanding!
My advice:
*Stop showing your staff the door, even if they deserve to. A great builder doesn’t discard arbitrarily.
*Even if there’s some truth in the saying, “no one is indispensable”, it mustn’t be said to the team or made an anthem!
*What people hear forms their sense of judgement and drives decisions. You lose the trust and confidence of well-meaning staff members.
*Even the great guys on your team would not sit steady in an organisation where they are constantly shown the exit door, as it were! Nobody wants to be rubbished.
*People might truly not be indispensable on a perpetual basis, but there are people who can prove hard to be replaced long after they exit:
– You may never find the exact touch of such persons on the job ever.
– It might take longer than you thought to get a viable replacement, and that is measured as a lag for your business operations.
– When you eventually find a replacement, it might prove insufficient to cater to the major gap that ‘indispensable person’ left behind, depending on how they left and what they represented on the team.
– Besides, the new guy might come in equally qualified, but you must invest time into getting them culture-aligned, etc.
A popular quote says: “No one is indispensable, but some persons are irreplaceable.” While in the words of Ufuoma Apoki, “No.one is indispensable but things are not right when some people are not around.” The ball is in your court.
Dear business leader, stop being frivolous with words you speak, especially at your general assemblies. You lose the trust of the team when you do.
Here’s one attitudinal change I would ask you to adopt as a replacement for this toxic one – orientate your team members on how to become so valued, they could become indispensable! You are better off with that energy!
Remember, effective communication isn’t simply spewing emotional words, it is achieving a clear goal ultimately. Structure your use of words to the team. Words are seeds, they get processed. Besides, it is not true that your staff members have no alternatives to you.
Time to brace yourself and BUILD!
I recommend our ‘Best Workplace Attitudes & Productivity’ Courses (leaders’ edition), to support your unique need.
Simply send a text: ‘ATTITUDES’ to the attached number to make a booking.
I’m Bosede Olusola-Obasa, Character Development Trainer, Best Workplace Attitudes Coach, Trust Culture Strategist.
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